The widely held belief that the Haruhi franchise is a spent force seems to have been shattered by the news that the latest novel in the series, “The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya” (Suzumiya Haruhi no Kyougaku), has sold a record 341,000 copies.

The two-volume novel’s limited edition version went on sale May 25th to a great deal of excitement, as might be expected of the first new Haruhi novel in 4 years.

Oricon in fact reports first week sales of 341,184 copies, over twice the previous best selling light novel’s first week performance:

It should also be noted that earlier reports about the success of the title (reportedly 1 million copies were shipped/printed) fell for the usual press release trick of substituting “inventory shipped to distributors” for “copies sold to consumers.”

Kadokawa in this case was even more sneakily combining inventory for the two volumes (bundled in the limited edition) into one figure to arrive at a more impressive number – not that it really needed to bother considering how impressive actual sales were anyway.

Online there is much surprise at such an unexpectedly strong showing from a series many had thought to be on its way out:

“So they can squeeze some more life out of it still.”

“Amazing. Who says it was done for?”

“Haruhi is restarted… but a new anime is impossible, with the current seiyuu at least.”

“Every bookshop was showing off great piles of it. It didn’t look like it was selling to me.”

“For an industry which calls 10,000+ sales a hit, this is fantastic.”

“All I remember is being recommended this by a friend only to read it and find it is utter trash.”

“It’s still selling. If it gets another anime I hope they change the seiyuu though.”

Except that no where in the post is sarcasm apparent, except the very last sentence. If I infer anything from the post, it is that the poster is bitter about the change of the Doctor when they started watching. If it was sarcasm, it was out of place at any rate.

competition but not hate makes us grow. in this case, there really isn't a very valid reason to hate aya for me at least. i mean she's still a decent seiyuu to me, i couldn't care less what she does with her private life.

Only teenagers believe it's hate that runs the world, because they lack perspective. Anon 18:49 is actually correct, that competition is what truly causes growth and advancement. You see something you wish to do and aspire to surpass it. The human ego is separated by a very fine line between itself and that which gives us confidence. Many people incorrectly believe they are the same, but the closest analogy is that they are two sides of the same coin, and even that isn't quite correct. To be confident is not to be arrogant, except there are those who lack self esteem who will perceive confidence as arrogance.

One example is Donald Trump. He said "I am a success. I am a successful person." and people perceived that as arrogant. Why? He is a successful person, and he's successful because he won't let anybody not LET him be successful, he will overcome anything in his way. Not only did he succeed once, but then lost his money and earned it back again with interest.

Wanting to be as good as someone you admire can manifest as jealousy, which is based on ego. And that can lead of course to blaming or hating the source if the person doesn't maintain their focus on themselves. When people judge themselves based on others is when hate enters the fray. If they judge themselves based on their own actions and desires, then they take full responsibility for any of their mistakes.

I deny this statement. I don't believe Haruhi has ever spoken with the 'double-start,' which is the identifying factor of the default tsundere.

"B-Baka! I-It's not like I like you or anything!"

It's one reason I like Haruhi so much. She's represented wonderfully as what "tsundere" in reality is really like: a girl who doesn't know how to express her feelings in every instance, but also may not even understand that she HAS such feelings, yet that doesn't mean she's constantly contrary to what she wants.

I don't really get what's the big deal with what the seiyuu does on her free time anyways, she's still a good voice actor. Even if she is a complete attention whore otherwise... I don't really want them to change her, can't really think Haruhi with another voice, or Konata for that matter.

Precisely... these people really are starting to annoy me. I'm going to assume generally that these selected quotes are just a few, and assume that in general, Aya's actual skills are recognized as different than her as a person.

I don't know who else could do Haruhi as well as Aya did, and plus, how exactly did anything Aya do affect Haruhi in any way? The problem is, if this is how these idiots think, in theory anime creators will end up listening and not bring her back, to which I can only hope and pray whomever they do get, if it's not Aya, is a wonderful and great voice actress.

I have to hear this... why? What EXACTLY did she do to deserve this and how do you justify that? Some idiots will say that to ask this is to be a mindless fan, defending her, which I find ironic. Because it's the mindless who think that a person deserves mindlessness in return by saying things like "She deserves it though" when all she did was become someone that people loved, and then became something that violated their expectations by being something unforgivable: human.

And don't use Sankaku as a reason. Artefact's affection for Aya has peppered everyone here with a completely incorrect perception. Anyone who would read Japanese news here would think they're nothing but otaku, natural disasters, cosplayers and Aya...

It was a damn good movie too, I think the story just can't be stretched out into a series very well so it needs a lot of material or a short time span to tell the story... Like that mistake they called season 2.